What is the reason for the cuts? Besides the obvious......

It’s not extending Desean. We can’t extend him yet because of the CBA, so that’s not what the tweets were about. We would have known if that happened anyway. That stuff always, always, always leaks before the pen is even put to paper.

The cuts are simple, the players are getting older, have been surpassed or replaced with other players and cost too much. It frees up roster space, but more importantly, cap space. The Eagles love working with cap space and obviously they see no reason to change how they do things for an uncapped year. Probably a smart move honestly. Curtis was already basically a non-factor. Between DJax, Maclin, Avant and Baskett, there isn’t room for him. With Tapp arriving, Howard is pushed off the depth chart with Parker and Abiamiri basically in front of him.

that we’ll be extending Desean in the near future. (It hasn’t happened yet though. Those tweets, I think, were just about an appearance he got paid to do. That’s all.)

I also think, if Kolb is our future at QB, he will be extended soon too.

But that still leaves a good bit of money leftover.

Guys like Bradley, Bunkley, and Mikell might warrant extensions. Some may argue that Sheldon Brown should get paid too (I’m not one of them).

So that bodes the question… are we freeing up this space to only take care of our own? Or is it to add another high impact player or two?

I don’t have the answer, but I’m hoping the answer is BOTH.

Check it out. We will have a lot of money to play with.

http://www.bleedinggreennation.com/2010/3/19/1380795/eagles-currently-have-massive

took advantage of there being no cap penalty on releasing/trading guys.

I read we can extend Desean, but for only a 30% increase under the current CBA. That’s obviously not nearly enough… so I’d expect Desean is basically stuck with his current contract until there is a new CBA

AIDS

Actually, DeSean Jackson CAN sign a new contract according to PFT.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/03/18/no-contract-extension-for-desean-jackson-yet/

But we’d still hear about negotiations before it happened.

In addition to DeSean, we’re more than likely to try to extend Kolb and Bunkley. Also, next offseason, we’ll probably want to extend Maclin and McCoy.

are taking advantage of an uncapped year. Cutting players increases the cap penalty and reduces the amount of money we can spend. By doing it in an uncapped year there is no cap penalty! At least that is what I think.

what are they going to do with this extra money? The way I see it is one of these:

A) They are going to make a big move up in the draft, or trade McNabb straight up for a really expensive player. Basically make a big move and somehow bring in a stud.

B) saving their money in fear their will be a lock out and be able to come out firing in the 2011 post lockout free agency. The Eagles FO probably has an idea of what the new CBA will look like and are playing smart for the long hall which could mean up to two years of non-super bowl contention. If this is true, we could be SB favorites in the 2012-13 season.

C) They’re actually are super evil and don’t give a shit about a SB just want to sell out the games and know they’ve done enough to probably do that for the next few years even without a playoff appearance. FFFFudge.

And don’t worry about DJAX, Andy Reid loves the kid and he will be around for a long time. He’ll get his.

We made all the cuts for the same reason we evermake cuts/trades. Because we can go younger and cheaper and get equal to or better production. And when nobody wants to trade for you, and your teams doesn’t want you, you get cut. Plus no salary cap penalty.

First off, I have no idea what DeSean wrote. Either I’m old or I don’t understand newly evolved English.

I think this offseason is a great example that the Eagles will not over-pay for a player. They don’t let sentimentality get in the way of the business that is pro football (releasing Westbrook). Are not going to keep an expensive player who is injury prone, unreliable, and brings a bit of drama (Shawn Andrews).

You had to figure that Kevin Curtis was not going to be long for this team the day they drafted Maclin. Curtis’s injuries combined with his salary and the emergence of DeSean Jackson and Jason Avant made him completely expendable and way over priced for his current role on the team.

You have to give them credit because they do know how to run the business side of the personnel game. Reggie Brown aside, they rarely over-pay to retain players. I have to believe that they have some inkling of what could happen with a new collective bargaining agreement and are putting themselves in position to manage it. So, I don’t think it means they will be throwing cash around on free agents or resigning expiring contracts.